WEBVTT 00:01.470 --> 00:08.880 Professor Steven Smith: Last time, I ended by talking 00:08.881 --> 00:16.291 about Machiavelli as both a revolutionary in many ways and a 00:16.293 --> 00:23.083 reformer of the moral vocabulary about virtue and vice, 00:23.077 --> 00:28.447 good and evil. Machiavelli seeks to replace, 00:28.450 --> 00:33.580 to transpose an older vocabulary associated both with 00:33.580 --> 00:37.800 Plato and certainly, perhaps more importantly, 00:37.803 --> 00:41.793 with biblical sources, wants to transform altogether 00:41.788 --> 00:46.108 the language of virtue, to give it a new kind of 00:46.110 --> 00:51.260 meaning, to change it from either Platonic or Christian 00:51.264 --> 00:56.614 otherworldliness to a greater sense of worldly power. 00:56.610 --> 00:59.690 Virtue is, for him, or to use his term again, 00:59.694 --> 01:03.274 virtù is related with manliness, with force, 01:03.268 --> 01:05.548 with power. He tells us, 01:05.545 --> 01:10.745 in chapter 25 of The Prince, the ethic of the 01:10.751 --> 01:16.981 prince must be one of audacity and even more audacity and that 01:16.978 --> 01:21.468 famous and very volatile image he uses, 01:21.470 --> 01:25.330 fortune is a woman and you must know how- the prince must know 01:25.331 --> 01:29.851 how to conquer the woman, must be used through policies 01:29.848 --> 01:32.848 of force, brutality, audacity. 01:32.849 --> 01:35.689 This is the language of Machiavelli. 01:35.690 --> 01:42.260 Virtue is associated with the quest for worldly glory, 01:42.256 --> 01:47.206 with ambition, with the desire to achieve 01:47.213 --> 01:50.603 success, and that's what I want to talk 01:50.603 --> 01:52.573 about at greater length today. 01:52.569 --> 01:57.549 I want to talk about what in the political and philosophical 01:57.551 --> 02:02.871 literature about this is called the problem of "dirty hands." 02:02.870 --> 02:06.900 And if you want to join the political game, 02:06.904 --> 02:11.424 you must be prepared to get your hands dirty, 02:11.419 --> 02:19.299 and what Machiavelli means by that, how he comes to this 02:19.297 --> 02:23.367 problem. In order, he argues, 02:23.369 --> 02:29.569 to effect a transformation of European morality, 02:29.572 --> 02:31.782 it is, in other words, 02:31.782 --> 02:34.852 to teach the prince, as he says in chapter 15, 02:34.850 --> 02:39.090 how not to be good, you have to go to the source of 02:39.091 --> 02:41.421 the morality. You have to go to the source of 02:41.418 --> 02:43.298 morality. To affect the maxims, 02:43.301 --> 02:46.581 to affect the standards that govern our lives, 02:46.584 --> 02:50.744 it is necessary to go to the source of those standards and 02:50.742 --> 02:54.902 those maxims and that can only be found in religion. 02:54.900 --> 03:00.490 Oddly, it seems in some ways, religion does not seem to be a 03:00.492 --> 03:03.812 major theme of The Prince. 03:03.810 --> 03:09.710 In a memorable passage from chapter 18, Machiavelli advises 03:09.708 --> 03:15.808 the prince always to cultivate the appearance of religion. 03:15.810 --> 03:18.780 The prince, he writes, should appear all mercy, 03:18.777 --> 03:22.387 all faith, all honesty, all humanity and all religion, 03:22.389 --> 03:28.179 he writes, adding nothing is more necessary to appear to have 03:28.180 --> 03:30.110 this last quality. 03:30.110 --> 03:32.080 The point is clear. 03:32.080 --> 03:35.850 The appearance of religion, by which he clearly means 03:35.846 --> 03:38.526 Christianity, is good while the actual 03:38.526 --> 03:40.696 practice of it is harmful. 03:40.699 --> 03:44.839 Think about the way in which that transforms what Plato says 03:44.835 --> 03:48.685 about justice in his answer to Glaucon in Book II of the 03:48.691 --> 03:52.621 Republic where…or Thrasymachus…where they both 03:52.616 --> 03:56.826 say it is more important, is it not more important to 03:56.829 --> 04:01.209 have the appearance of being just than the reality of it? 04:01.210 --> 04:04.570 And here, you see Machiavelli in a way adding his voice to 04:04.573 --> 04:07.373 that chorus. It is much better to have the 04:07.367 --> 04:10.147 appearance than the reality of religion. 04:10.150 --> 04:13.940 But in order to understand or to discover the core of 04:13.935 --> 04:16.915 Machiavelli's teachings about religion, 04:16.920 --> 04:21.220 I have to make a slight detour away from The Prince and 04:21.218 --> 04:25.658 to his Discourses on Livy and in maybe the most important 04:25.658 --> 04:28.828 chapter of that book, Book II, chapter 2, 04:28.834 --> 04:33.384 called "Concerning the Kinds of People the Romans had to Fight 04:33.377 --> 04:37.247 and how Obstinately they Defended their Freedom," 04:37.250 --> 04:42.220 a long title for a chapter to be sure, but here Machiavelli 04:42.221 --> 04:47.361 develops a powerful contrast between two opposed and mutually 04:47.364 --> 04:54.494 incompatible moral codes, the Christian and the pagan. 04:54.490 --> 04:57.250 "If one asks oneself," Machiavelli writes, 04:57.247 --> 05:01.347 "If one asks oneself how it came about that people of old," 05:01.350 --> 05:05.490 in olden--in the ancient world, "were more fond of liberty than 05:05.488 --> 05:08.918 we are today, I think the answer," he says, 05:08.919 --> 05:13.939 "is due to the same cause that makes men today less bold than 05:13.944 --> 05:18.104 they used to be," less bold, "and this is due I 05:18.097 --> 05:23.477 think to the difference between our education and that of bygone 05:23.480 --> 05:26.150 days." So what precisely is the 05:26.148 --> 05:30.338 difference that Machiavelli refers to here between our 05:30.341 --> 05:35.251 education and the education of bygone days that makes people or 05:35.246 --> 05:40.306 that made people in the ancient world more fond of liberty, 05:40.310 --> 05:44.670 as he says, than those of our contemporaries or Machiavelli's 05:44.673 --> 05:48.173 contemporaries? Machiavelli's emphasis here on 05:48.170 --> 05:52.160 education, particularly moral and religious education, 05:52.163 --> 05:56.913 is the key difference between the ancient times and his own. 05:56.910 --> 06:00.270 These two different ages, he believes, 06:00.267 --> 06:05.437 advanced two very different systems of moral and religious 06:05.439 --> 06:09.279 education, one based on pagan worldliness 06:09.280 --> 06:13.050 and the other based on Christian innocence. 06:13.050 --> 06:17.670 And it is that conflict, as it were, between what we 06:17.673 --> 06:22.663 might call worldliness and innocence that is the core of 06:22.660 --> 06:25.290 Machiavelli's moral code. 06:25.290 --> 06:28.510 Let me quote Machiavelli's passage from the 06:28.509 --> 06:32.879 Discourses at some length because I think it's very 06:32.879 --> 06:37.169 revealing: "Our religion," he writes, obviously thinking 06:37.169 --> 06:40.049 of the Catholic Christianity of his time. 06:40.050 --> 06:45.020 "Our religion," he writes, "has glorified humble and 06:45.015 --> 06:48.225 contemplative men, monks, priests, 06:48.228 --> 06:54.068 humble and contemplative men, rather than men of action. 06:54.069 --> 06:57.849 It is assigned as man's highest good humility, 06:57.850 --> 07:01.800 abnegation, and contempt for mundane things," 07:01.800 --> 07:04.730 whereas the other, that is to say the ancient 07:04.729 --> 07:08.989 moral code, "whereas the other identified it with magnanimity, 07:08.990 --> 07:12.510 bodily strength, and everything that conduces to 07:12.514 --> 07:14.094 make men very bold. 07:14.089 --> 07:19.239 And if our religion," he says, "demands that in you there be 07:19.236 --> 07:24.636 strength what it asks for is the strength to suffer rather than 07:24.643 --> 07:26.653 to do bold things." 07:26.649 --> 07:28.899 In other words, he says Christian strength, 07:28.899 --> 07:32.059 the strength of the Christian, is the strength to suffer, 07:32.060 --> 07:36.330 thinking of Jesus on the Cross rather than to, 07:36.326 --> 07:39.356 as he puts it, do bold things. 07:39.360 --> 07:43.770 And it is not for Machiavelli simply the existence of these 07:43.766 --> 07:47.106 two different moralities that is at stake. 07:47.110 --> 07:50.220 By softening morals, he believes, 07:50.224 --> 07:54.704 by making us gentler, Christianity has had some 07:54.700 --> 08:00.150 deeply perverse effects upon politics, so he claims. 08:00.149 --> 08:03.299 This pattern of life, Machiavelli continues, 08:03.304 --> 08:07.784 appears to have made the world weak and to have handed it over 08:07.779 --> 08:09.979 to the prey of the wicked. 08:09.980 --> 08:13.830 This pattern of life, this pattern of education, 08:13.834 --> 08:17.614 of moral education, introduced by the Bible and 08:17.607 --> 08:22.197 scripture and Christianity, has made the world weak. 08:22.199 --> 08:25.039 In other words, by teaching humility, 08:25.040 --> 08:27.570 self-abnegation, purity of heart, 08:27.566 --> 08:31.826 Christianity has made it difficult to develop qualities 08:31.827 --> 08:36.007 necessary for the defense of political liberty. 08:36.009 --> 08:40.429 Christianity has made the world weak or, if you want to use his 08:40.433 --> 08:44.433 again highly charged word for that, it has made the world 08:44.429 --> 08:45.499 effeminate. 08:45.500 --> 08:48.870 08:48.870 --> 08:53.360 Machiavelli would no doubt be taken up against some board of 08:53.355 --> 08:58.065 offense today for using such a term but that's his language. 08:58.070 --> 09:02.470 What can I say? This is why he concludes there 09:02.470 --> 09:06.460 are fewer republics today than in the time of the ancients 09:06.460 --> 09:11.010 because we do not have the same love of freedom that they did. 09:11.009 --> 09:16.979 Now Machiavelli's explicit referencing of the ancient civil 09:16.975 --> 09:21.085 religions, the ancient civil theology, 09:21.090 --> 09:26.820 is a direct tribute to the role of Numa, N-u-m-a, 09:26.822 --> 09:33.512 in Livy's famous History of the Roman Republic. 09:33.509 --> 09:37.639 Justin, who is an authority on this text, can tell you more 09:37.641 --> 09:41.851 about it if you like, but in the opening books of 09:41.854 --> 09:47.674 Livy, he tells the story of how Rome was founded by Romulus, 09:47.669 --> 09:51.539 who had murdered his brother, Remus, but after this it 09:51.536 --> 09:56.056 required a second founding and the second founding was the work 09:56.059 --> 09:58.809 of a man named Numa, who, Livy writes, 09:58.807 --> 10:01.507 determined that Rome, which had originally been 10:01.508 --> 10:03.678 established through force of arms, 10:03.679 --> 10:07.649 should be reestablished through justice, laws and proper 10:07.651 --> 10:10.541 observances, in other words, religion. 10:10.539 --> 10:13.539 In order to complete the founding of the city, 10:13.544 --> 10:17.224 it was necessary to establish its gods and ensure proper 10:17.217 --> 10:18.817 respect for the law. 10:18.820 --> 10:25.000 Numa was the bringer of the Roman legal codes respecting 10:25.003 --> 10:29.953 religion, proper observances and the like. 10:29.950 --> 10:37.110 But Machiavelli uses Livy and in the story about Rome's second 10:37.113 --> 10:43.103 founding to bring home an important lesson about the 10:43.101 --> 10:45.921 utility of religion. 10:45.919 --> 10:50.559 "Religion," he tells the reader, "is not to be evaluated 10:50.557 --> 10:55.697 by its truth content but for its consequences for society." 10:55.700 --> 11:01.340 But the story of Numa or his use of that story tell us more 11:01.335 --> 11:06.965 than just a lesson about the social utility of religion. 11:06.970 --> 11:12.090 At the time of the founding of Rome, Machiavelli writes, 11:12.087 --> 11:17.197 religion was necessary to temper and control the warlike 11:17.204 --> 11:19.814 character of the Romans. 11:19.809 --> 11:25.369 Religion had to bring a softening effect upon against 11:25.371 --> 11:31.361 the violent and bestial character of the early Romans. 11:31.360 --> 11:34.600 But for us today, Machiavelli writes, 11:34.600 --> 11:38.650 religion has to serve the opposite purpose. 11:38.649 --> 11:43.459 It must instill something of a fighting spirit into people who 11:43.463 --> 11:47.883 have lost their instinct to resist encroachments on their 11:47.883 --> 11:50.073 liberty. In many ways, 11:50.065 --> 11:54.815 this is the deeper meaning of Machiavelli's slogan, 11:54.818 --> 11:56.718 "one's own arms." 11:56.720 --> 12:01.280 He uses in a variety of passages the formula that a good 12:01.279 --> 12:06.249 republic depends upon one's own arms and laws and in a deeper 12:06.254 --> 12:10.814 sense this idea of "one's own arms" means developing the 12:10.814 --> 12:15.544 capacities to resist encroachments on your freedom. 12:15.539 --> 12:19.249 The prince, in other words, has to use religion to 12:19.245 --> 12:23.855 encourage his subjects to rely upon their own arms rather than 12:23.859 --> 12:28.019 on divine promises and that again is the teaching of his 12:28.018 --> 12:31.798 retelling of the story of David and Goliath, 12:31.799 --> 12:35.079 the biblical story of David and Goliath, in chapter 13 of The 12:35.082 --> 12:38.192 Prince. You remember how Machiavelli 12:38.190 --> 12:41.490 retells and also rewrites that story. 12:41.490 --> 12:46.370 He writes the story saying that David went armed, 12:46.369 --> 12:50.739 went into battle with Goliath armed only, 12:50.740 --> 12:56.860 he says, with a sling and a knife, and those of you who know 12:56.860 --> 13:02.670 the story and checked against the biblical account of the 13:02.669 --> 13:08.689 story know that David only went into battle against Goliath 13:08.685 --> 13:13.245 armed with Saul's armor and his sling. 13:13.250 --> 13:16.190 Machiavelli gives him a knife. 13:16.190 --> 13:18.110 Where did this come from? 13:18.110 --> 13:21.030 Why does he add this? 13:21.029 --> 13:27.379 His subtle alteration of the biblical story is hugely 13:27.383 --> 13:31.713 revealing. Its moral seems to be "trust in 13:31.712 --> 13:35.872 God's promises, yes, but bring a knife just in 13:35.868 --> 13:36.698 case." 13:36.700 --> 13:40.610 13:40.610 --> 13:44.530 It's like the old joke about the fighter who went in to the 13:44.526 --> 13:48.706 ring and before going in to the ring and he asked the priest to 13:48.712 --> 13:51.052 pray for him. He said, "I'll pray for him but 13:51.053 --> 13:52.173 if he can punch it'll help." 13:52.170 --> 13:57.850 13:57.850 --> 14:04.380 In a small respect, that's Machiavelli. 14:04.379 --> 14:08.549 Machiavelli sensed that his own country was deeply deficient in 14:08.546 --> 14:12.786 these martial virtues, necessary to reassert greatness 14:12.787 --> 14:16.937 and this was a theme of a lengthy poem he wrote. 14:16.940 --> 14:18.110 Yes. You're surprised. 14:18.110 --> 14:21.230 Yes, Machiavelli wrote poetry and plays. 14:21.230 --> 14:23.260 His play, The Mandragola, 14:23.255 --> 14:26.255 is still performed, but he wrote an interesting 14:26.261 --> 14:29.111 poem, a lengthy poem called 14:29.105 --> 14:33.505 Ambizione, ambition, something like 14:33.507 --> 14:38.687 Platonic thumos, which lamented his countrymen's 14:38.689 --> 14:43.469 lack of civic spirit and their need to be reeducated in the art 14:43.469 --> 14:46.919 of war. I only want to read a small 14:46.917 --> 14:52.767 section to you from that poem: "If you perchance are tempted 14:52.766 --> 14:57.316 to accuse nature, if Italy, so wary and wounded, 14:57.324 --> 15:00.934 does not produce hard and bellicose people, 15:00.929 --> 15:05.559 this I say is not sufficient to erase our cowardice for 15:05.563 --> 15:10.373 education can supplement where nature is deficient. 15:10.370 --> 15:15.580 Stern education made Italy bloom in ancient days and made 15:15.584 --> 15:21.734 her rise and conquer the entire world and for herself make room. 15:21.730 --> 15:25.920 But now she lives, if tears can be called life, 15:25.915 --> 15:31.185 beneath the ruins and unhappy fate that she has reaped from 15:31.192 --> 15:33.742 her long lack of strife. 15:33.740 --> 15:36.910 But now she lives, if tears can be called life, 15:36.908 --> 15:40.898 beneath the ruins and unhappy fate that she has reaped from 15:40.902 --> 15:42.902 her long lack of strife." 15:42.899 --> 15:46.089 And just from this little section of the poem, 15:46.094 --> 15:50.424 you can see that the theme of a new kind of education and only 15:50.423 --> 15:53.053 that can remedy nature's defects, 15:53.050 --> 15:56.020 as Machiavelli calls them. 15:56.019 --> 16:00.219 It is this lack of strife, this long lack of strife, 16:00.220 --> 16:02.280 that makes people weak. 16:02.279 --> 16:06.159 People are weakened by prolonged peace and they are 16:06.159 --> 16:10.039 made strong, fierce and independent through war. 16:10.039 --> 16:13.579 Only by hardening themselves, he says, will it be possible 16:13.575 --> 16:18.355 for Italy, as he puts it, "to rise and conquer the entire 16:18.363 --> 16:24.493 world, in ancient days again and made her rise and conquer the 16:24.490 --> 16:28.810 entire world and for herself make room." 16:28.810 --> 16:30.720 His point seems to be this. 16:30.720 --> 16:35.000 If you want liberty, you have to know how not to be 16:34.998 --> 16:39.618 good, at least as Christianity has defined goodness. 16:39.620 --> 16:43.760 The Christian virtue of humility, turning the other 16:43.763 --> 16:48.573 cheek, forgiveness of sins, must be rejected if you want to 16:48.569 --> 16:52.049 do good as opposed to just being good. 16:52.049 --> 16:54.579 You have to learn, in other words, 16:54.580 --> 16:56.880 how to get your hands dirty. 16:56.879 --> 17:01.979 Between the innocence of the Christian and the worldliness of 17:01.977 --> 17:07.157 Machiavelli's new morality, there can be no reconciliation. 17:07.160 --> 17:12.650 These are just two incompatible moral positions that Machiavelli 17:12.650 --> 17:16.050 states but he goes further than this. 17:16.049 --> 17:21.429 The safety and security enjoyed by the innocents, 17:21.430 --> 17:27.820 our freedom to live blameless lives and to have untroubled 17:27.819 --> 17:31.299 sleep, depends upon the prince's 17:31.303 --> 17:35.373 clear-eyed and even ruthless use of power. 17:35.369 --> 17:38.029 The true statesman, the true prince for 17:38.026 --> 17:42.566 Machiavelli, must be prepared to mix a love of the common good, 17:42.569 --> 17:47.909 a love of his own people, with a streak of cruelty that 17:47.909 --> 17:54.039 is often regarded as essential for a great ruler in general, 17:54.039 --> 17:59.729 another part of knowing how not to be good, knowing when and how 17:59.728 --> 18:04.148 to use cruelty or what Machiavelli tellingly calls 18:04.152 --> 18:06.322 "cruelty well used." 18:06.319 --> 18:07.549 When it's well used, it's a virtue. 18:07.550 --> 18:10.730 18:10.730 --> 18:15.970 This is simply another example of how moral goodness grows out 18:15.965 --> 18:19.995 of and even requires a context of moral evil. 18:20.000 --> 18:23.530 Machiavelli's advice to you is clear. 18:23.529 --> 18:27.629 If you cannot accept the responsibilities of political 18:27.630 --> 18:31.730 life, if you cannot afford to get your hands dirty, 18:31.730 --> 18:37.020 if you cannot accept the harsh necessities that may require 18:37.019 --> 18:42.299 cruelty, deceit and even murder, then get out of the way, 18:42.299 --> 18:44.659 then this is not for you. 18:44.660 --> 18:49.780 Don't seem to impose, don't seek to impose your own 18:49.779 --> 18:54.899 high-minded innocence, sometimes called justice, 18:54.900 --> 18:58.750 your own high-minded innocence on the requirements of 18:58.750 --> 19:02.230 statecraft because it will only lead to ruin. 19:02.230 --> 19:07.250 In the modern era, the presidency of Jimmy Carter, 19:07.252 --> 19:11.452 for example, is usually taken as exhibit A 19:11.454 --> 19:16.894 of the confusion between Christian humanitarianism and 19:16.887 --> 19:21.087 the necessities of reason of state. 19:21.089 --> 19:25.439 If you can't do the tough thing, if you can't do the harsh 19:25.437 --> 19:31.307 thing, Machiavelli says, then stay out of politics and 19:31.308 --> 19:38.678 don't attempt to impose your high-minded morality on the 19:38.683 --> 19:41.863 state. As I said at the beginning, 19:41.862 --> 19:45.302 in the philosophical literature, this has become 19:45.296 --> 19:49.526 known as the problem of dirty hands so named after a famous 19:49.533 --> 19:53.993 play written by the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. 19:53.990 --> 19:58.030 The problem of dirty hands refers to the conflict of 19:58.028 --> 20:02.218 duties, again conflict of moralities between the harsh 20:02.224 --> 20:06.984 requirements of politics and the equally demanding desire for 20:06.975 --> 20:11.175 moral purity, to keep the world at a distance. 20:11.180 --> 20:14.660 Machiavelli doesn't deny that there is something deeply 20:14.664 --> 20:18.024 admirable about the desire to remain morally pure, 20:18.019 --> 20:20.239 morally decent, morally innocent, 20:20.244 --> 20:24.214 but he just wants to say this is a very different morality 20:24.206 --> 20:26.566 from the morality of politics. 20:26.569 --> 20:29.919 In Sartre's play, the action takes place in a 20:29.915 --> 20:34.245 fictional eastern European country during World War II, 20:34.250 --> 20:39.000 probably something like Yugoslavia, where a communist 20:38.995 --> 20:44.745 resistance fighter reproaches an idealistic young recruit to the 20:44.745 --> 20:50.395 resistance who is resisting or is balking at the order to carry 20:50.404 --> 20:53.694 out a political assassination. 20:53.690 --> 20:55.710 "Why did you join us?" 20:55.710 --> 20:57.690 the communist resistance fighter asks. 20:57.690 --> 21:00.170 "Purity is an idea for the yogi or the monk. 21:00.170 --> 21:03.660 Do you think anyone can govern innocently?" 21:03.660 --> 21:08.060 "Do you think anyone can govern innocently," the phrase taken of 21:08.062 --> 21:12.202 course from Saint-Just, one of the leaders of the 21:12.199 --> 21:17.359 Jacobin Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. 21:17.359 --> 21:22.089 What do you think politics is, a game of moral purity? 21:22.089 --> 21:27.629 The same kind of conflict is really very much at the core of 21:27.628 --> 21:32.038 the great political fiction of John le Carre, 21:32.039 --> 21:36.829 the great novelist of the Cold War and so on, 21:36.827 --> 21:41.507 and in his great, one of his early political 21:41.506 --> 21:44.936 thrillers, a book called The Spy who 21:44.942 --> 21:48.492 Came in from the Cold, he depicts there a British 21:48.494 --> 21:52.524 agent who was working undercover and who at the same time is 21:52.524 --> 21:56.424 carrying on a love affair with an idealistic young English 21:56.418 --> 21:59.968 librarian who has joined the communist party. 21:59.970 --> 22:02.830 In this case, she, the communist, 22:02.827 --> 22:04.967 is the idealistic one. 22:04.970 --> 22:08.590 She's joined the party because she believes it will aid the 22:08.587 --> 22:12.447 cause of nuclear disarmament and will bring international peace 22:12.454 --> 22:16.384 and when Lemas, the spy, reveals to her that he 22:16.382 --> 22:21.072 is a spy, he tells her his view of what politics is, 22:21.070 --> 22:22.310 the nature of politics. 22:22.309 --> 22:27.619 "There's only one law in the game," Lemas says, 22:27.623 --> 22:32.363 "the expediency of temporary alliances. 22:32.359 --> 22:35.439 Who do you think spies are, priests, saints, 22:35.443 --> 22:37.933 martyrs? They're squalid little men, 22:37.925 --> 22:40.075 fools, queers, sadists, drunkards, 22:40.083 --> 22:43.943 people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten 22:43.940 --> 22:46.030 lives. Do you think they sit like 22:46.027 --> 22:47.917 monks weighing up right and wrong?" 22:47.920 --> 22:51.970 22:51.970 --> 22:55.050 So both of these cases, the Sartre case, 22:55.047 --> 22:59.067 the John le Carre case, in a way are interesting but 22:59.071 --> 23:03.181 they're also sort of cases of what I think of as faux 23:03.175 --> 23:07.545 Machiavellianism, kind of intellectuals engaging 23:07.552 --> 23:12.082 in tough talk to show that they have really lost their 23:12.079 --> 23:14.589 innocence, which is the sort of 23:14.591 --> 23:17.961 intellectual equivalent of losing your virginity, 23:17.955 --> 23:21.735 showing you're not really innocent about the world. 23:21.740 --> 23:25.920 Machiavelli of course likes to play that game and it suggests 23:25.920 --> 23:30.100 that the world is divided between the weak and the strong, 23:30.099 --> 23:35.529 between the realists who see things the way they are and the 23:35.534 --> 23:40.604 idealists who require the comfort of moral illusions. 23:40.599 --> 23:44.729 Yes, Machiavelli sometimes seems to corroborate this point 23:44.726 --> 23:47.466 of view. Does he not say that armed 23:47.470 --> 23:51.200 prophets always win, the unarmed prophets lose? 23:51.200 --> 23:55.810 Did he not say that he wrote to reveal the effectual truth of 23:55.809 --> 24:00.649 things and not just what people have imagined the case to be? 24:00.650 --> 24:04.800 Yet it seems inconceivable that Machiavelli wrote an entire book 24:04.802 --> 24:09.312 simply to prove the obvious, that is to say that the strong 24:09.311 --> 24:14.371 will always crush the weak and that politics is left to those 24:14.374 --> 24:17.754 who leave their scruples at the door. 24:17.750 --> 24:21.610 The question is, was Machiavelli really that 24:21.613 --> 24:23.773 kind of Machiavellian? 24:23.770 --> 24:27.430 Was Machiavelli a Machiavellian? 24:27.430 --> 24:29.640 Let's see. 24:29.640 --> 24:35.690 24:35.690 --> 24:41.310 What kind of government did Machiavelli think best? 24:41.309 --> 24:44.409 As he indicates at the beginning of The Prince, 24:44.405 --> 24:47.845 there are two kinds of regimes: there are principalities and 24:47.852 --> 24:50.762 republics. But each of these regimes, 24:50.762 --> 24:55.592 he says, is based on certain contrasting dispositions or what 24:55.590 --> 24:57.920 he calls humors, umori, 24:57.924 --> 25:01.064 humors. "In every society," he writes, 25:01.060 --> 25:05.260 this is chapter 9 of The Prince, "two diverse humors 25:05.257 --> 25:09.937 are found from which this arise, that the people desire neither 25:09.936 --> 25:14.366 to be commanded nor oppressed by the great and the great desire 25:14.371 --> 25:17.091 to command and oppress the people." 25:17.089 --> 25:21.049 These are the two great political psychological 25:21.052 --> 25:24.582 dispositions, the popular desire not to be 25:24.584 --> 25:29.584 oppressed and the disposition of what he calls the great to 25:29.580 --> 25:31.820 command and oppress. 25:31.819 --> 25:36.119 Machiavelli uses these two psychological and even in some 25:36.117 --> 25:40.987 ways quasi-medical terms, humors, to designate two 25:40.986 --> 25:46.926 classes of people on which every society is based. 25:46.930 --> 25:51.450 His theory of the humors in chapter 9 seems in some ways to 25:51.446 --> 25:55.806 be reminiscent of Plato's account of the three classes of 25:55.807 --> 25:59.927 the soul or the three parts of the soul with one vivid 25:59.934 --> 26:03.514 exception. "Each class of the city," he 26:03.513 --> 26:08.513 says, "is bound or determined by a humor but neither humor is 26:08.513 --> 26:11.683 anchored in reason or rationality." 26:11.680 --> 26:15.560 Every state is divided into two classes expressing these two 26:15.559 --> 26:18.649 qualities, these two psychological qualities, 26:18.650 --> 26:21.910 the grandi, the rich and powerful who wish 26:21.913 --> 26:24.433 to dominate, and the popolo, 26:24.430 --> 26:28.540 the common people who wish merely to be left alone, 26:28.535 --> 26:31.815 who wish neither to rule nor be ruled. 26:31.819 --> 26:36.229 Now, one might expect that the author of a book entitled The 26:36.230 --> 26:38.720 Prince would favor the great, 26:38.720 --> 26:42.730 would favor the grandi, those who desire to rule. 26:42.730 --> 26:46.800 Are not these aristocratic goals of honor and glory 26:46.803 --> 26:51.043 precisely what Machiavelli seems to be advocating? 26:51.039 --> 26:55.169 Yet in many ways, Machiavelli proceeds to 26:55.169 --> 27:00.539 deprecate the virtues of the nobility, perhaps to our 27:00.537 --> 27:03.757 surprise. The ends of the people, 27:03.756 --> 27:08.726 the ends, the purposes of the people, is more decent than that 27:08.734 --> 27:13.474 of the great since the great want to oppress and the people 27:13.467 --> 27:16.647 want not to be oppressed, he says. 27:16.650 --> 27:22.020 His advice is that the prince should seek to build his power 27:22.021 --> 27:26.301 base on the people rather than on the nobles. 27:26.299 --> 27:30.969 Because of their ambition for power, the nobles will always be 27:30.969 --> 27:35.139 a threat to the prince and, in an interesting reversal of 27:35.143 --> 27:38.783 the Platonic and Aristotelian conception of politics, 27:38.779 --> 27:42.379 it is the nobles here who are said to be the more fickle and 27:42.378 --> 27:46.158 unpredictable and the people are more constant and reliable. 27:46.160 --> 27:50.280 Remember in the Platonic and Aristotelian view of politics 27:50.279 --> 27:53.169 the democracy, the rule of the people, 27:53.170 --> 27:56.700 the demos, was always criticized for it 27:56.699 --> 28:01.409 being fickle and unstable and subject to whim and passion and 28:01.405 --> 28:04.145 so on. Here, Machiavelli tells us it 28:04.145 --> 28:08.385 is the great who are subject to this kind of inconstancy and the 28:08.392 --> 28:10.282 people are more reliable. 28:10.279 --> 28:14.829 The worst, he writes, that a prince can expect from a 28:14.828 --> 28:19.468 hostile people is to be abandoned by them but from the 28:19.465 --> 28:21.595 great, when they are hostile, 28:21.596 --> 28:24.966 he must fear not only being abandoned but also that they may 28:24.967 --> 28:26.107 move against him. 28:26.110 --> 28:30.800 28:30.799 --> 28:35.229 The grandi are more dangerous and fickle. 28:35.230 --> 28:38.890 So the main business of government consists in knowing 28:38.893 --> 28:42.353 how to control the elites because they are always a 28:42.350 --> 28:45.530 potential source of conflict and ambition. 28:45.529 --> 28:48.799 The prince must know how to chasten the ambition, 28:48.802 --> 28:51.122 to humble the pride, as it were, 28:51.119 --> 28:55.749 of the great and powerful, and this, we will see as early 28:55.751 --> 28:59.141 as Wednesday, becomes a major theme in the 28:59.143 --> 29:04.873 philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, humbling or chastening the 29:04.874 --> 29:07.014 pride of the few. 29:07.009 --> 29:12.809 The rule of the prince or sovereign requires the ability 29:12.807 --> 29:19.337 to control the ambition and to do so through selective policies 29:19.342 --> 29:23.462 of executions, of public accusations and 29:23.455 --> 29:25.045 political trials. 29:25.049 --> 29:29.429 Remember the example that we read at the end of class on 29:29.431 --> 29:32.221 Friday, I believe from chapter 7, 29:32.220 --> 29:37.300 the example of Cesare Borgia and Remirro d'Orco and how his 29:37.295 --> 29:41.525 execution, his bloody execution, left the people, 29:41.533 --> 29:44.933 Machiavelli says, stupefied and satisfied? 29:44.930 --> 29:50.760 Here is a perfect example of how to control the ambitions of 29:50.763 --> 29:55.513 the nobles and to win the people to your side. 29:55.509 --> 29:59.769 So Machiavelli's prince, while not exactly a democrat, 29:59.773 --> 30:04.043 recognizes the essential decency of the people and the 30:04.037 --> 30:06.367 need to keep their faith. 30:06.369 --> 30:11.109 And by decency he seems to mean their absence of ambition, 30:11.113 --> 30:15.443 the absence of the desire to dominate and control. 30:15.440 --> 30:20.860 But this kind of decency is not the same as goodness for there 30:20.856 --> 30:26.096 is also a tendency on the part of the people to descend into 30:26.096 --> 30:30.266 what Machiavelli calls idleness or license. 30:30.269 --> 30:34.159 The desire not to oppress others may be decent but at the 30:34.157 --> 30:38.527 same time the people have to be taught or educated how to defend 30:38.530 --> 30:41.390 their liberty. Fifteen hundred years of 30:41.386 --> 30:44.326 Christianity, he says, have left people weak, 30:44.332 --> 30:47.812 have left the people weak without their capacities to 30:47.814 --> 30:51.164 exercise political responsibility and the resources 30:51.161 --> 30:53.841 to defend themselves from attack. 30:53.839 --> 30:57.809 So just as princes must know how to control the ambitions of 30:57.813 --> 31:00.843 the multitude, how to control the ambitions of 31:00.844 --> 31:04.144 the nobles--excuse me--they, the princes, 31:04.136 --> 31:10.006 must know how to strengthen the desires of the common people. 31:10.009 --> 31:12.969 Some readers of The Prince, even some very 31:12.973 --> 31:15.323 astute readers of The Prince, 31:15.319 --> 31:19.739 have thought that Machiavelli's work is really, 31:19.735 --> 31:25.005 or Machiavelli's prince, is really a kind of democrat in 31:25.014 --> 31:30.964 disguise and that the prince is intended precisely to alert the 31:30.964 --> 31:35.864 people to the dangers of a usurpatory prince. 31:35.859 --> 31:39.519 This is for example what the great seventeenth-century 31:39.522 --> 31:43.602 political philosopher Spinoza believed about Machiavelli. 31:43.599 --> 31:46.009 In his book called, simply called, 31:46.006 --> 31:49.206 The Political Treatise, Spinoza wrote: 31:49.214 --> 31:53.374 "Machiavelli wished to show how careful a people should be 31:53.369 --> 31:57.379 before entrusting its welfare to a single prince. 31:57.380 --> 32:01.320 I am led," Spinoza continues, "to this opinion concerning 32:01.324 --> 32:05.204 that most far-seeing man because it is known that he was 32:05.198 --> 32:07.028 favorable to liberty." 32:07.029 --> 32:11.469 That's Spinoza on Machiavelli, because "he was favorable to 32:11.466 --> 32:15.896 liberty" and that the book, he says, is kind of a satire on 32:15.903 --> 32:18.573 princely rule. Or, if you don't believe 32:18.572 --> 32:21.752 Spinoza, if you don't believe his authority is sufficient, 32:21.750 --> 32:24.360 consider someone who you'll be reading in a couple of weeks, 32:24.358 --> 32:27.728 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from the Social Contract. 32:27.730 --> 32:31.250 "Machiavelli was an honorable man and a good citizen," 32:31.253 --> 32:34.053 Rousseau says, "an honorable man and a good 32:34.046 --> 32:36.906 citizen who, being attached to the House of 32:36.913 --> 32:39.743 Medici, was forced, during the oppression of his 32:39.738 --> 32:42.288 homeland, to disguise his love of 32:42.293 --> 32:45.193 freedom." So, The Prince was 32:45.192 --> 32:50.492 written in a way that disguised the real teaching of the book, 32:50.490 --> 32:54.350 which is the love of freedom and presumably the freedom of 32:54.345 --> 32:58.395 the people, something of the type that Rousseau himself spoke 32:58.403 --> 32:59.083 about. 32:59.080 --> 33:02.420 33:02.420 --> 33:04.860 Maybe these comments go too far. 33:04.859 --> 33:09.269 Maybe they are exaggerations and I think to some degree they 33:09.274 --> 33:14.064 are but it's revealing that both of these very serious readers of 33:14.064 --> 33:18.034 Machiavelli took him to be an apostle of freedom. 33:18.029 --> 33:21.429 Spinoza taking him, taking his book to be a warning 33:21.430 --> 33:24.900 to the people about the dangers of princely rule, 33:24.900 --> 33:29.980 Rousseau believing that he had deliberately disguised his love 33:29.981 --> 33:34.901 of freedom because he had to appeal to the tyrannical nature 33:34.897 --> 33:36.977 of the Medici family. 33:36.980 --> 33:38.930 In either case, they regard him as 33:38.933 --> 33:42.253 surreptitiously taking the side of the people against the 33:42.248 --> 33:42.898 nobles. 33:42.900 --> 33:47.240 33:47.240 --> 33:50.540 In any case, whatever one makes of those 33:50.543 --> 33:55.793 examples, Machiavelli seems to be challenging important aspects 33:55.794 --> 34:00.884 of the classical conceptions that we've been talking about up 34:00.876 --> 34:04.696 to this point. In the classical republic, 34:04.703 --> 34:08.563 for the ancient republic of Plato and Aristotle, 34:08.559 --> 34:12.169 these republics were ruled by nobilities, 34:12.170 --> 34:17.820 gentlemen possessed of wealth and leisure, who were therefore 34:17.824 --> 34:22.164 capable of forming sound political judgment, 34:22.159 --> 34:25.689 who will dominate, while in Machiavelli's state it 34:25.688 --> 34:29.718 is the people who are going to be the dominant social and 34:29.719 --> 34:33.229 political power. Machiavelli wants to redirect 34:33.233 --> 34:37.173 power to some degree away from the nobles and toward the 34:37.165 --> 34:39.705 people. One wants to know why, 34:39.709 --> 34:42.119 why does he want to do that? 34:42.119 --> 34:44.719 In the first place, he judges the people to be more 34:44.716 --> 34:46.946 reliable, as he tells us, than the great. 34:46.949 --> 34:49.679 Once the people have been taught to value their liberty, 34:49.675 --> 34:52.445 have learned to oppose encroachments on their freedom, 34:52.449 --> 34:56.419 to be fierce and vigilant watchdogs rather than humble and 34:56.419 --> 35:00.589 subservient underlings, they will serve as a reliable 35:00.592 --> 35:04.452 basis for the greatness and power of a state. 35:04.449 --> 35:09.779 With the people on his side, the prince is more likely to 35:09.777 --> 35:15.297 achieve his goals of a robust civil life for his people and 35:15.295 --> 35:18.145 eternal glory for himself. 35:18.150 --> 35:21.390 And, as Machiavelli likes to say, the prince must know how to 35:21.394 --> 35:22.534 adapt to the times. 35:22.530 --> 35:27.720 What is true for princes is no less true for advisers to 35:27.718 --> 35:31.018 princes like Machiavelli himself. 35:31.019 --> 35:34.899 One must know the times and character of a people. 35:34.900 --> 35:39.070 In the ancient republic, it may have been necessary to 35:39.065 --> 35:43.855 find and impose restraints on the passions of the demos but in 35:43.859 --> 35:47.079 the modern world, he says, where republics have 35:47.083 --> 35:50.073 become a thing of the past, the people need to be taught 35:50.068 --> 35:52.508 how to value their liberty above all else. 35:52.510 --> 35:56.540 The most excellent princes of the past were those like Moses, 35:56.535 --> 35:59.285 he tells us, who brought tables of law and 35:59.286 --> 36:01.966 prepared people for self-government. 36:01.969 --> 36:05.019 It is fitting and proper that The Prince concludes, 36:05.022 --> 36:08.202 the last chapter, chapter 26, concludes with a 36:08.203 --> 36:12.843 patriotic call to his countrymen to emancipate themselves and 36:12.839 --> 36:15.929 liberate Italy from foreign invaders. 36:15.930 --> 36:19.940 36:19.940 --> 36:22.960 So what did Machiavelli achieve? 36:22.960 --> 36:24.920 What were his actual accomplishments? 36:24.920 --> 36:28.460 36:28.460 --> 36:33.290 Did he accomplish all he set out to do, to rewrite or to 36:33.287 --> 36:37.147 write a new moral code for political life, 36:37.150 --> 36:42.970 to found a new political continent, as he speaks about, 36:42.971 --> 36:49.441 to found new modes and orders along the lines of Columbus? 36:49.440 --> 36:51.010 Did he achieve this? 36:51.010 --> 36:54.650 First of all, one should not and cannot 36:54.646 --> 37:00.386 underestimate his unprecedented break with both classical and 37:00.388 --> 37:02.588 biblical antiquity. 37:02.590 --> 37:06.730 More than anyone else before him, and perhaps more than 37:06.732 --> 37:10.422 anyone else since, he sought to liberate politics 37:10.415 --> 37:12.865 from ecclesiastical control. 37:12.869 --> 37:15.779 The new prince, as we've seen, 37:15.777 --> 37:21.887 must know how to use religion but needs to learn how not to be 37:21.894 --> 37:26.324 used by religion, must not become a dupe of the 37:26.320 --> 37:29.020 religious. He must know how to use 37:29.023 --> 37:33.073 religious passions and sentiments but not be used by 37:33.065 --> 37:36.145 them. Politics must become a purely 37:36.148 --> 37:39.528 worldly affair. It should not be limited or 37:39.533 --> 37:44.203 constrained by any transcendent standards or moral laws that do 37:44.203 --> 37:49.723 not derive from politics itself, whether a law of God or some 37:49.715 --> 37:54.025 kind of transcendent moral order or code. 37:54.030 --> 37:57.760 37:57.760 --> 38:01.120 Machiavelli's warning, we might say today, 38:01.117 --> 38:04.797 to the religious right, or his critique of the 38:04.802 --> 38:10.312 religious right, cannot make politics conform to 38:10.312 --> 38:13.312 transcendent moral law. 38:13.309 --> 38:17.489 But not only did Machiavelli bring a new worldliness to 38:17.493 --> 38:21.453 politics, he also introduced a new kind of populism, 38:21.445 --> 38:25.235 you might say. Plato and Aristotle imagined 38:25.238 --> 38:29.608 aristocratic republics that would invest power in an 38:29.608 --> 38:32.948 aristocracy of education and virtue. 38:32.949 --> 38:37.789 Machiavelli deliberately seeks to enlist the power of the 38:37.793 --> 38:42.553 people against aristocracies of education and virtue. 38:42.550 --> 38:46.760 He is a kind of proto-democrat almost who sought to re-create, 38:46.755 --> 38:49.095 not through accident and chance, 38:49.099 --> 38:54.839 but through planning and design a new kind of republic in the 38:54.835 --> 38:58.445 modern world. The republic that Machiavelli 38:58.448 --> 39:02.728 imagined, and it's interesting while he tells us he's only 39:02.730 --> 39:07.310 going to the effectual truth of things and not the imagination 39:07.313 --> 39:10.463 of it, nevertheless Machiavelli does 39:10.463 --> 39:15.193 himself imagine a new kind of regime, a new kind of republic 39:15.190 --> 39:20.160 in the modern world that would not be a city at peace but would 39:20.157 --> 39:21.917 be a city at war. 39:21.920 --> 39:25.470 It would be armed and expansive. 39:25.469 --> 39:31.179 Machiavelli's republic feeds on conflict, on war and conquest. 39:31.179 --> 39:37.249 It is aggressive and imperialistic. 39:37.250 --> 39:39.920 Does it sound familiar? 39:39.920 --> 39:45.570 Is it us? In fact, if you look at a 39:45.568 --> 39:50.118 brilliant article I think in this week's New Republic 39:50.119 --> 39:53.359 by Robert Kagan called "Cowboy Nation," 39:53.360 --> 39:59.160 Kagan demonstrates I think with a great deal of conviction that 39:59.162 --> 40:04.592 the American republic from its onset has been expansive, 40:04.590 --> 40:08.360 aggressive, imperialistic, from the conquest of the 40:08.361 --> 40:12.661 territories, the expropriation of the native Americans, 40:12.659 --> 40:17.979 the acquisition of Louisiana, wars of liberation against 40:17.976 --> 40:23.036 Mexico and Spain and so on, well into the twentieth and now 40:23.035 --> 40:25.865 the twenty first century, an aggressive, 40:25.873 --> 40:29.073 expansive, imperialistic republic. 40:29.070 --> 40:32.260 That, he says, has been our history and what 40:32.262 --> 40:35.312 it should say, what it doesn't quite say I 40:35.307 --> 40:38.007 think, is that it has been this 40:38.013 --> 40:42.353 history not because it is American but because it is a 40:42.348 --> 40:45.898 republic, because of its regime type, 40:45.897 --> 40:47.987 its regime character. 40:47.989 --> 40:52.059 That kind of behavior seems perhaps to be built in to the 40:52.060 --> 40:53.660 natures of republic. 40:53.659 --> 40:57.269 It was Machiavelli's admiration for the politics, 40:57.272 --> 41:00.812 what someone once called the lupine politics, 41:00.809 --> 41:06.369 the wolf-like politics, of republican Rome that led him 41:06.367 --> 41:11.927 to understand that all social and moral goods have been 41:11.925 --> 41:16.655 established by morally questionable means. 41:16.659 --> 41:22.039 Have we become or have we always been Machiavelli's 41:22.039 --> 41:25.589 republic, Machiavelli's desire? 41:25.590 --> 41:30.640 Think about that when you're in your sections or writing your 41:30.643 --> 41:35.283 papers and you will get those paper topics on Wednesday, 41:35.276 --> 41:38.306 by the way. And finally, 41:38.305 --> 41:45.805 Machiavelli is the author of a new amoral realism. 41:45.809 --> 41:50.559 "By whatever means necessary" I think is his motto or should be 41:50.557 --> 41:53.847 his motto, "by whatever means necessary," 41:53.849 --> 41:57.609 and oddly he claims to be merely stating out loud, 41:57.605 --> 42:02.275 merely stating aloud what all writers have known all along. 42:02.280 --> 42:06.210 42:06.210 --> 42:09.950 It is necessary, he says, for the prince to know 42:09.950 --> 42:14.010 well how to use the beast and the man, he writes. 42:14.010 --> 42:17.150 "This role," he says, "was taught covertly by ancient 42:17.146 --> 42:19.886 writers. It was taught covertly by 42:19.886 --> 42:23.386 ancient writers," he says in chapter 18. 42:23.389 --> 42:27.419 The idea then that Machiavelli is doing no more than saying 42:27.418 --> 42:31.648 openly and overtly what ancient writers had wrapped in parable 42:31.654 --> 42:35.344 and enigma and myth says something about Machiavelli's 42:35.335 --> 42:37.275 new political science. 42:37.280 --> 42:43.140 What was previously taught only subtly and in private will now 42:43.139 --> 42:46.309 be taught openly and in public. 42:46.309 --> 42:50.779 What was once available only to a few, will now be available to 42:50.777 --> 42:53.167 all. Perhaps more than anything 42:53.173 --> 42:56.873 else, Machiavelli's new openness, his readiness to 42:56.873 --> 43:01.413 challenge received authority, and his willingness to consider 43:01.413 --> 43:04.843 authority as self-created, as self-made rather than 43:04.837 --> 43:07.437 bestowed by either nature or grace, 43:07.440 --> 43:12.670 is what fundamentally constitutes his modernity. 43:12.670 --> 43:16.910 So I'm going to leave it on that note and on Wednesday we 43:16.905 --> 43:21.515 will begin the study of one of Machiavelli's greatest and most 43:21.518 --> 43:24.768 profound disciples in the modern world, 43:24.769 --> 43:27.999 a man by the name of Thomas Hobbes.